DefinedDesign Posted March 17, 2023 Share Posted March 17, 2023 Would welcome any insight on what I'm doing incorrectly. I manually drew this dormer because Auto Dormer would not work - I got all the standard CA error messages with Auto Dormers. Many many hours into this and it's almost there, but not... (Please advise how I can attach the plan, ChiefTalk gives me a message it will only load 14 MB, my zipped plan is 22.3 MB) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chopsaw Posted March 17, 2023 Share Posted March 17, 2023 1 minute ago, DefinedDesign said: Please advise how I can attach the plan Upload to your cloud account and then post the download link or create a stripped down version of the file without fixtures and furnishings etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kbird1 Posted March 17, 2023 Share Posted March 17, 2023 5 minutes ago, DefinedDesign said: Would welcome any insight on what I'm doing incorrectly. I manually drew this dormer because Auto Dormer would not work - I got all the standard CA error messages with Auto Dormers. Many many hours into this and it's almost there, but not... (Please advise how I can attach the plan, ChiefTalk gives me a message it will only load 14 MB, my zipped plan is 22.3 MB) The missing part of the side wall is common , depends on a number of factors but generally you can select it while in 3D and pull it across manually to fill in the Hole. Mick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DefinedDesign Posted March 17, 2023 Author Share Posted March 17, 2023 4 minutes ago, Chopsaw said: Upload to your cloud account and then post the download link or create a stripped down version of the file without fixtures and furnishings etc. @Chopsaw I don't have any cloud accounts that will hold a file that large. The zipped file does have all the interior gutted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DefinedDesign Posted March 17, 2023 Author Share Posted March 17, 2023 2 minutes ago, Kbird1 said: The missing part of the side wall is common , depends on a number of factors but generally you can select it while in 3D and pull it across manually to fill in the Hole. Mick. Thanks Mick - unfortunately if I try to pull it across manually, the wall completely disappears. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kbird1 Posted March 17, 2023 Share Posted March 17, 2023 6 minutes ago, DefinedDesign said: cloud accounts that will hold a file that large your on a mac it appears and you have iCloud , is it full ? 22mb is pretty small, it is unfortunate CA lowered the limit to 14mb ( used to be 25mb) during Covid as a cost cutting measure. I thought Mac's came with Dropbox too which is a free 2GB.... M. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kbird1 Posted March 17, 2023 Share Posted March 17, 2023 5 minutes ago, DefinedDesign said: Thanks Mick - unfortunately if I try to pull it across manually, the wall completely disappears. Pull it a few inches at a time and see what happens , do you by chance have a invisible wall ( Room Break) on the inside defining the Dormer "Room" try moving it back if so. M. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DefinedDesign Posted March 17, 2023 Author Share Posted March 17, 2023 9 minutes ago, Kbird1 said: your on a mac it appears and you have iCloud , is it full ? 22mb is pretty small, it is unfortunate CA lowered the limit to 14mb ( used to be 25mb) during Covid as a cost cutting measure. I thought Mac's came with Dropbox too which is a free 2GB.... M. Zipped Plan File - Put the zip file into Dropbox and copied the link. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DefinedDesign Posted March 17, 2023 Author Share Posted March 17, 2023 22 minutes ago, Chopsaw said: Upload to your cloud account and then post the download link or create a stripped down version of the file without fixtures and furnishings etc. Zipped Plan File - Put the zip file into Dropbox and copied the link. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kbird1 Posted March 17, 2023 Share Posted March 17, 2023 9 minutes ago, DefinedDesign said: Put the zip file into Dropbox and copied the link. You've been using the Paint Can Tool on Exterior Walls, which isn't a good idea , see my link below about that... all I did here was set the Walls back to Siding 6 and the Material's back to default.... other than that you have it good 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DefinedDesign Posted March 17, 2023 Author Share Posted March 17, 2023 11 minutes ago, Kbird1 said: all I did here was set the Walls back to Siding 6 and the Material's back to default.... other than that you have it good Apologies in advanced for my ignorance but how would I set the Materials back to default? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kbird1 Posted March 17, 2023 Share Posted March 17, 2023 7 hours ago, DefinedDesign said: Apologies in advanced for my ignorance but how would I set the Materials back to default? Follow the link above , I have updated the Post and the PDF to include the Fix as well now...... Or Chief has a KB Article as well....... https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00586/restoring-wall-materials-changed-using-the-material-painter.html M. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winterdd Posted March 17, 2023 Share Posted March 17, 2023 Alcohol makes placing or creating dormers less stressful. 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DefinedDesign Posted March 17, 2023 Author Share Posted March 17, 2023 58 minutes ago, Kbird1 said: Follow the link above , I even posted a PDF for it.... M. Followed the link and read the pdf my brain did not read an answer as to how to set the Materials back to the defaults. A couple hours of searching and I discovered: >In plan view open up the wall dialog >go to materials >In the component box select the exterior wall surface >Now hit the 'Select Material' button to the right >In the Select Material dialogue check the box to 'Use default material' and select OK > After doing this for all the exterior walls I still had that little triangle piece showing up as drywall. I split the wall into a 6" exterior and a 6" interior which took care of the issue on the outside, everything looks great. However, the inside is a mess. When I try to make changes to the wall I get this new error message: Here are the two rooms that the manual dormer is over: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kbird1 Posted March 18, 2023 Share Posted March 18, 2023 On 3/17/2023 at 4:05 PM, DefinedDesign said: Followed the link and read the pdf my brain did not read an answer as to how to set the Materials back to the defaults Sorry didn't see you reply earlier today about Following the link above, I have updated the Post and the PDF to include the Fix as well now, I thought it was in there so I didn't need to retype it...... I am not sure what is up with your other issues as it didn't happen here, there was a gap on the Triangle side but I just pulled the top of the wall up a couple of inches to fix it , I wouldn't recommend that in most cases but occasionally it is needed especially if Balloon Through Ceiling doesn't work ( in the Wall's Structure Tab) and it didn't in this case..... I am not sure why your plan was so big previously ( 91mb ) but after purging Materials and resaving it the Plan file is only 9mb - unzipped.... attached below.... MHD_X12_B_dormer_issues.plan M. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DefinedDesign Posted March 18, 2023 Author Share Posted March 18, 2023 11 hours ago, Kbird1 said: Sorry didn't see you reply earlier today about Following the link above, I have updated the Post and the PDF to include the Fix as well now, I thought it was in there so I didn't need to retype it...... I am not sure what is up with your other issues as it didn't happen here, there was a gap on the Triangle side but I just pulled the top of the wall up a couple of inches to fix it , I wouldn't recommend that in most cases but occasionally it is needed especially if Balloon Through Ceiling doesn't work ( in the Wall's Structure Tab) and it didn't in this case..... I am not sure why your plan was so big previously ( 91mb ) but after purging Materials and resaving it the Plan file is only 9mb - unzipped.... attached below.... M. Mick, I appreciate your help, - a tutorial on how to purge materials would be awesome. I think the issue is with the dividing wall between the rooms being inside the house and over the deck - I have not found any tutorials on how to accomplish this. I also think my Macbook does the best it can but it's always had issues with Chief Architect - always since 2013. Since the Macbook works great with all the other software I put on it, I can only conclude it doesn't get along with Chief Architect software very well - it's much better than it used to be. I will reach out to the help desk and see if they can help me troubleshoot. Very grateful for you and your kindness in helping me get this far! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kbird1 Posted March 18, 2023 Share Posted March 18, 2023 17 hours ago, DefinedDesign said: When I try to make changes to the wall I get this new error message "Deck is over a non deck room. Framing may not be correct" this doesn't have anything to do with your Dormer , it is the Room on the side of the house you have named as a Porch ( but is a Deck Room Type) as part of it is over the Room you have set as a Court Type on the basement level. KB Article : <<< Click for link I think you may have just been working on the plan for a few hours and had not resaved it recently, so Chief was still holding onto the things you had changed / deleted temporarily, as if I unzip your plan it is 99mb and if I open it in X12 and immediately save it, it drops to only 8.6mb. You can Purge Materials any time you are in the Materials Selection Tab under PLAN MATERIALS...on the left , before you do anything else is best , with the button on the right , it removes any material no longer used in the Plan ie anything that doesn't have a blue check mark, but you can also use the Plan Materials Dialog to do it too and any time via 3D > Materials > Plan Materials 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DefinedDesign Posted March 20, 2023 Author Share Posted March 20, 2023 Well, this is such a difficult thing to overcome. It's important for me to understand why this is happening so I won't repeat the error. It's also important that Chief generates everything correctly without me drawing in something to cover up the error, so the materials to calculate correctly. To spend so much money on this software and spend days working on this by watching all the CA Tutorials, reading all the KB articles, Posting in ChiefTalk. It's a tad frustrating to not figure this out. Admittedly, I won't surrender until I it's fixed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kbird1 Posted March 20, 2023 Share Posted March 20, 2023 41 minutes ago, DefinedDesign said: It's a tad frustrating to not figure this out. Admittedly, I won't surrender until I it's fixed. Good Attitude but unfortunately frustration in CA is 2nd nature... it the most frustration piece of SW I have ever used but you have to learn to "let go" or it will drive you crazy Shoot an elevation camera at the Wall and pull the top of the Wall up to the Ceiling manually ...and then it shouldn't move or change as once you do that Chief takes it hands off that Wall from that point on ( no auto build enabled ) ....this you need to remember as you may change something in the future and the wall will need manually updating as well or you'll need to switch it back to "Default Wall Top" on the Structure Tab to get it to re-generate. Mick. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SNestor Posted March 21, 2023 Share Posted March 21, 2023 Lisa - lots of little things going on in your plan. The dormer fix is very simple. Watch the video...should answer most of your questions. Well...I was going to upload the fixed file - but you are using X12 and I used X14. I'm sorry...I didn't notice this in your signature. The fixes are similar in X12 so I think if you watch the video you will be able to figure things out. Lisa - DefinedDesign - dormer fix and other things - Watch Video 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alaskan_Son Posted March 21, 2023 Share Posted March 21, 2023 6 hours ago, DefinedDesign said: It's also important that Chief generates everything correctly without me drawing in something to cover up the error, so the materials to calculate correctly. This simply isn't always possible. The software is imperfect. Sometimes you just need to do the best you can (or the best the software can) and move on. It should also be noted that covering the "error" up isn't necessarily wrong. You're just having to use a different tool or approach than expected. I can for example cover an errant hole in a wall by completely removing the drywall layer from the wall definition, covering it with a solid, and then adding a component to that solid (or even to the wall for that matter) to get materials to accurately report to the materials list. I've also done things like stacking multiple walls side by side (one for the framing layer and another for the drywall layer, etc.) which ultimately report completely fine to the materials list without any component modification. Or maybe the material list isn't even wrong and its only the 3D view. If its not actually visible in any of your rendering or documents, does it really matter? Or if you can patch it with a mask of some sort in 5 minutes, is it really worth spending several hours figuring out a way to make it work "correctly"? 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DefinedDesign Posted March 21, 2023 Author Share Posted March 21, 2023 9 hours ago, Alaskan_Son said: This simply isn't always possible. The software is imperfect. Sometimes you just need to do the best you can (or the best the software can) and move on. It should also be noted that covering the "error" up isn't necessarily wrong. You're just having to use a different tool or approach than expected. I can for example cover an errant hole in a wall by completely removing the drywall layer from the wall definition, covering it with a solid, and then adding a component to that solid (or even to the wall for that matter) to get materials to accurately report to the materials list. I've also done things like stacking multiple walls side by side (one for the framing layer and another for the drywall layer, etc.) which ultimately report completely fine to the materials list without any component modification. Or maybe the material list isn't even wrong and its only the 3D view. If its not actually visible in any of your rendering or documents, does it really matter? Or if you can patch it with a mask of some sort in 5 minutes, is it really worth spending several hours figuring out a way to make it work "correctly"? Thank you so much for sharing your perspective! I completely agree that software can be imperfect, we often have to make do with the tools we have, and we don't always need to spend hours fixing something that may not even be noticeable in the end. However, when I see CA videos of complicated designs with seemingly no issues, I think that I should be able to do the same. Personally, I love a challenge when it comes to solving a problem, and I approach things in a similar way to Edison and Einstein. I believe that there must be a solution and that the time and effort I put into finding it is worth it in the end. Even if I'm the only one who benefits from it, I enjoy the satisfaction of knowing that I can use the software more effectively going forward. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I appreciate you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DefinedDesign Posted March 21, 2023 Author Share Posted March 21, 2023 13 hours ago, SNestor said: Lisa - lots of little things going on in your plan. The dormer fix is very simple. Watch the video...should answer most of your questions. Wow, thank you so much for sharing this video with me! I just finished watching it once, and now I'm going to go back and follow your instructions step by step. It usually takes me a little longer to process things than most people, but I'm excited to see what happens once I've gone through everything. I really appreciate your help, and I'll definitely report back to you once I've had a chance to try everything out. Thanks again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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